Basho's thoughts on...
Matsuo Basho 1644~1694
The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
Basho Spoken Word
Only this, apply your heart
to what children do
"The attachment to Oldness
is the very worst disease
a poet can have."
“The skillful have a disease;
let a three-foot child
get the poem"
"Be sick and tired
of yesterday’s self."
"This is the path of a fresh
lively taste with aliveness
in both heart and words."
.
"In poetry is a realm
which cannot be taught.
You must pass through it
yourself. Some poets have made
no effort to pass through, merely
counting things and trying
to remember them.
There was no passing
through the things."
"In verses of other poets,
there is too much making
and the heart’s
immediacy is lost.
What is made from
the heart is good;
the product of words
shall not be preferred."
"We can live without poetry,
yet without harmonizing
with the world’s feeling
and passing not through
human feeling, a person
cannot be fulfilled. Also,
without good friends,
this would be difficult."
"Poetry benefits
from the realization
of ordinary words."
"Many of my followers
write haiku equal to mine,
however in renku is the
bone marrow of this old man."
"Your following stanza
should suit the previous one as an expression
of the same heart's connection."
"Link verses the way
children play."
"Make renku
ride the Energy.
Get the timing wrong,
you ruin the rhythm."
"The physical form
first of all must be graceful
then a musical quality
makes a superior verse."
"As the years passed
by to half a century.
asleep I hovered
among morning clouds
and evening dusk,
awake I was astonished
at the voices of mountain
streams and wild birds."
“These flies sure enjoy
having an unexpected
sick person.”
Haiku of Humanity
Drunk on sake
woman wearing haori
puts in a sword
Night in spring
one hidden in mystery
temple corner
Wrapping rice cake
with one hands she tucks
hair behind ear
On Life's journey
plowing a small field
going and returning
Child of poverty
hulling rice, pauses to
look at the moon
Tone so clear
the Big Dipper resounds
her mallet
Huddling
under the futon, cold
horrible night
Jar cracks
with the ice at night
awakening
Basho Renku
Masterpieces
With her needle
in autumn she manages
to make ends meet
Daughter playing koto
reaches age seven
After the years
of grieving. . . finally
past eighteen
Day and night dreams of
Father in that battle
Now to this brothel
my body has been sold
Can I trust you
with a letter I wrote,
mirror polisher?
Only my face
by rice-seedling mud
is not soiled
Breastfeeding on my lap
what dreams do you see?
Single renku stanzas
Giving birth to
love in the world, she
adorns herself
Autumn wind
saying not a word
child in tears
Among women
one allowed to lead
them in chorus
Easing in
her slender forearm
for his pillow
Two death poems:
On a journey taken ill
dreams on withered fields
wander about
Clear cascade -
into the ripples fall
green pine needles
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
Plea for Affiliation
Plea For Affiliation
I pray for your help
in finding someone
- individual, university,
or foundation -
to take over my
3000 pages of material,
to cooperate with me
to edit the material,
to receive all royalties
from sales, to spread
Basho’s wisdom worldwide,
and preserve for
future generations.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
Home >
Topics >
Children and Teens
Ancient Greek playwrites and Shakespeare show us children dying (see article C-19). Basho instead shows us children and teens living, playing, speaking, seeking love.
The Poet of Children – 107 Poems
Of all the portraits of children and teens in world literature, the earliest and most numerous, diverse, and insightful are by Basho (not only haiku, but far more renku), although mostly unknown ...
C-07
Being a Baby – Commentaries for #s 1 - 20
These 20 studies of babyhood by Basho and co-poets are anthropology, records of the life and mind of babies in olden Japan , and also records of the feeling one Japanese man had for babies.
&nbs ...
C-08
Age 3 to 7
Verses about the "childness" between ages 3 and 7, with Japanese and Romanized, plus commentaries to help you "apply your heart to what children do" through Basho's words. &nbs ...
C-09
Age 7 to 12
Beginning with the transformation at age seven when Basho says the "face becomes clear," till the onset of puberty, kids discover the vastness of "what children do" in this world.
We begi ...
C-10
Teenagers
Teenagers, find ways to use these verses as resources to understand yourselves and other teens. Anthropologists, use them to expand your understanding of human growth.
71
Ove ...
C-11
Prose, Letters, and Spoken Word about Children
Here are ten kids Basho wrote about in haibun or letters: Kyokusui's son Takesuke, Uko's daughter Sai, an abandoned 2-year old, an 11 year old "Priest of the Road,"&nb ...
C-12
Journey with Grandnephew
Basho's haiku, renku, letters, and spoken word about Jirobei, his traveling companion on this final journey, about the two girls left home, and about children in general.&nb ...
C-13
Blessing unto Kasane
Basho's haibun and tanka blessing a newborn baby girl he was asked to name; in my opinion, the tanka, SPRING PASSES BY, is his masterpiece, and the greatest work in Japanese literature.
&nbs ...
C-14
Learning to Read with Basho
21 Basho haiku and 5 renku for beginning readers. Basho said, Have a three-foot child get the poem, so here are 28 Basho poems for first to third graders to “get.”
& ...
C-15
Abandoned Child
Basho's compassionate account of the abandoned child he met in 1684 has been misunderstood so the compassion is lost. In this article, I try to repair the damage done with a dose of reality. ...
C-16
Child and Teen Welfare
Basho's renku and letters tell of his lifelong concern for the well-being of children and teenagers; he paid attention to children of all ages, and recorded their circumstances and behavior. ...
C-17
Kids in Japanese Literature before Basho
My thesis that Basho is the Poet of Children -- rather than the poet of old men -- can only be sustained by comparison with the children portrayed by authors and poets before Basho. In artic ...
C-18
Kids in Western Literature until Shakespeare
My thesis that Basho is the Poet of Children -- rather than the poet of old men -- can only be sustained by comparison with the children portrayed by authors and poets before Basho. In ...
C-19
Visions of Childhood
The 17th century Japanese poet Basho paid attention to the young of our species and recorded their living activity in a hundred poems In his final year, three months before he died, he told ...
C-20
Teenage Girls
Several dozen poems about adolescent girls by the 17th century Japanese poet Basho have been ignored by scholars and not translated, so almost nobody knows they exist. A few of them are haiku, but mos ...
C-21
Rub It Out!
Rub It Out
Young Japanese today consider Basho “impersonal,” and “old-fashioned,” having no relevance to modern life, however here is a linked verse in which& ...
C-22
Child Neglect
The crying child’s
face is such a mess
Renting a roomthey make no fireto boil rice
The parents do not wipe the snot off their kid’s face, so germs produce skin infection and pu ...
C-23
Girls Only
Here is a stanza-pair of linked verse composed in 1694; Basho wrote the second stanza.
White cloth in the breezelark sings to the sky
Girls onlygoing to view blossomsrise in a flock
晒の ...
C-24
Introduction to What Children Do
100% of rights and royalties in perpetuity from the sale of this book are offered to an organization that helps children in need,in exchange for active promotion of book.
Let children know
what ...
C-25
Basho's thoughts on...
Matsuo Basho 1644~1694
The only substantial
collection in English
of Basho's renku, tanka,
letters and spoken word
along with his haiku, travel
journals, and essays.
The only poet in old-time
literature who paid attention with praise
to ordinary women, children, and teenagers
in hundreds of poems
Hundreds upon hundreds of Basho works
(mostly renku)about women, children,
teenagers, friendship, compassion, love.
These are resources we can use to better
understand ourselves and humanity.
Interesting and heartfelt
(not scholarly and boring)
for anyone concerned with
humanity.
“An astonishing range of
social subject matter and
compassionate intuition”
"The primordial power
of the feminine emanating
from Basho's poetry"
Hopeful, life-affirming
messages from one of
the greatest minds ever.
Through his letters,
we travel through his mind
and discover Basho's
gentleness and humanity.
I plead for your help in
finding a person or group
to take over my 3000 pages of Basho material,
to edit and improve the material, to receive 100%
of royalties, to spread Basho’s wisdom worldwide
and preserve for future generations.
Quotations from Basho Prose
The days and months are
guests passing through eternity.
The years that go by
also are travelers.
The mountains in silence
nurture the spirit;
the water with movement
calms the emotions.
All the more joyful,
all the more caring
Seek not the traces
of the ancients;
seek rather the
places they sought.
Basho Spoken Word
Only this, apply your heart
to what children do
"The attachment to Oldness
is the very worst disease
a poet can have."
“The skillful have a disease;
let a three-foot child
get the poem"
"Be sick and tired
of yesterday’s self."
"This is the path of a fresh
lively taste with aliveness
in both heart and words."
.
"In poetry is a realm
which cannot be taught.
You must pass through it
yourself. Some poets have made
no effort to pass through, merely
counting things and trying
to remember them.
There was no passing
through the things."
"In verses of other poets,
there is too much making
and the heart’s
immediacy is lost.
What is made from
the heart is good;
the product of words
shall not be preferred."
"We can live without poetry,
yet without harmonizing
with the world’s feeling
and passing not through
human feeling, a person
cannot be fulfilled. Also,
without good friends,
this would be difficult."
"Poetry benefits
from the realization
of ordinary words."
"Many of my followers
write haiku equal to mine,
however in renku is the
bone marrow of this old man."
"Your following stanza
should suit the previous one as an expression
of the same heart's connection."
"Link verses the way
children play."
"Make renku
ride the Energy.
Get the timing wrong,
you ruin the rhythm."
"The physical form
first of all must be graceful
then a musical quality
makes a superior verse."
"As the years passed
by to half a century.
asleep I hovered
among morning clouds
and evening dusk,
awake I was astonished
at the voices of mountain
streams and wild birds."
“These flies sure enjoy
having an unexpected
sick person.”
Haiku of Humanity
Drunk on sake
woman wearing haori
puts in a sword
Night in spring
one hidden in mystery
temple corner
Wrapping rice cake
with one hands she tucks
hair behind ear
On Life's journey
plowing a small field
going and returning
Child of poverty
hulling rice, pauses to
look at the moon
Tone so clear
the Big Dipper resounds
her mallet
Huddling
under the futon, cold
horrible night
Jar cracks
with the ice at night
awakening
Basho Renku
Masterpieces
With her needle
in autumn she manages
to make ends meet
Daughter playing koto
reaches age seven
After the years
of grieving. . . finally
past eighteen
Day and night dreams of
Father in that battle
Now to this brothel
my body has been sold
Can I trust you
with a letter I wrote,
mirror polisher?
Only my face
by rice-seedling mud
is not soiled
Breastfeeding on my lap
what dreams do you see?
Single renku stanzas
Giving birth to
love in the world, she
adorns herself
Autumn wind
saying not a word
child in tears
Among women
one allowed to lead
them in chorus
Easing in
her slender forearm
for his pillow
Two death poems:
On a journey taken ill
dreams on withered fields
wander about
Clear cascade -
into the ripples fall
green pine needles
basho4humanity
@gmail.com
Plea for Affiliation
Plea For Affiliation
I pray for your help
in finding someone
- individual, university,
or foundation -
to take over my
3000 pages of material,
to cooperate with me
to edit the material,
to receive all royalties
from sales, to spread
Basho’s wisdom worldwide,
and preserve for
future generations.
basho4humanity
@gmail.com